CIPFA - Performance in Public Services: Social Research

Home Delivery

The Home Delivery Survey was originally developed in response to the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) Public Library Impact Measure (PLIM) to measure satisfaction with 'the choice of materials received'. This information continues to be collected in the Public Library Statistics Actuals and Estimates by CIPFAStats.

The Home Delivery Survey is a national model for surveying housebound users of the library service.  The questionnaire focuses on various aspects of the service, for example how the respondent first heard about the service, what services they would like to receive be that in connection with books or computers, what impact the service has on their lives as well as levels of satisfaction. The survey proposes a uniform methodology where questions are asked in the same order to achieve consistency for valid national, regional and local comparisons. Increasingly the survey has been used a part of a larger service review and is generally, given the frailty of the target audience, delivered by those providing the service.